[Scifience]

Well, I finally did it. $4000 later, I assembled all of the components needed to build a very nice home theater / DVR system.

Athlon 64 3200+
1GB PC3200 RAM
500 GB Hard Disk Space (2x250GB in RAID 0)
WinTV 350
nVidia GeForce 6800 GT
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
5.1 THX Certified Surround Sound System

I assembled all the hardware, and it runs. Now, it is just a matter of what software to use. I have an OEM version of XP Media Center 2005 or I can use MythTV and Linux. The hardware works with either software package.

I'd like to use MythTV (no evil Microsoft), but I'm not sure if the hassle of setting it up is worth it.

Does anybody here have any experience with setting up/using MythTV or XP Media Center, or something else altogether? I'm open to any suggestions.

[tkmd]

Not entirely sure about this but I believe if choose to use windows media software you may be locked out certain movies like the ones on HBO. I read somewhere that hbo now transmits the signal with CGMS-a embedded within it. This code only allows you to record the video on the HD but moving the video to a DVD - the CGMS-a prevents it from putting to a DVD. Its the new "CSS" (the code that prevents DVDs from being copied). If I were you I would go for Linux. Not sure about Linux over riding it. Perhaps its not a big deal because if one where to convert the feed (or the video on the HD) to a standard like .avi or MP4 it may not be an issue. Do a search about CGMS-a to find out more....

Sage TV

Works awesome - use it constantly.

[turtle777]

Originally posted by Scifience:
Well, I finally did it. $4000 later, I assembled all of the components needed to build a very nice home theater / DVR system.

So how much did you spend on the speakers of the 5.1 THX Certified Surround Sound System ?

-t

[Scifience]

Originally posted by turtle777:


So how much did you spend on the speakers of the 5.1 THX Certified Surround Sound System ?

-t

About $1250 for everything sound related. They aren't very big, as the room I've put them in isn't very big, but they sound outstanding. They also can be upgraded to a 7.1 set for a few hundred extra. My favorite part is the 50lb subwoofer.

[brapper]

I'm seriously considering doing one of these up using Mythtv.
How much did the computer part of it cost you all together?
What'd you end up going with?

[tooki]

RAID 0 = bad.

Why risk all your files (and painstaking configuration) for an increase in speed you do not need? Any SATA drive on the market today is more than fast enough for video without doing RAID 0.

tooki

[effgee]

tooki's got it right, methinks ...

from an article on anadtech.com:

"Final Words
If you haven't gotten the hint by now, we'll spell it out for you: there is no place, and no need for a RAID-0 array on a desktop computer. The real world performance increases are negligible at best and the reduction in reliability, thanks to a halving of the mean time between failure, makes RAID-0 far from worth it on the desktop.

There are some exceptions, especially if you are running a particular application that itself benefits considerably from a striped array, and obviously, our comments do not apply to server-class IO of any sort. But for the vast majority of desktop users and gamers alike, save your money and stay away from RAID-0.

If you do insist on getting two drives, you are much better off putting them into a RAID-1 array to have a live backup of your data. The performance hit of RAID-1 is just as negligible as the performance gains of RAID-0, but the improvement in reliability is worthwhile...unless you're extremely unlucky and both of your drives die at the exact same time. ..."

[Scifience]

Originally posted by brapper:
I'm seriously considering doing one of these up using Mythtv.
How much did the computer part of it cost you all together?
What'd you end up going with?

I ended up spending a total of about $7500. I lost track of exactly what components cost what at this point.

As far as RAID0, I did it for the performance increase ... I often copy full DVDs from one machine to another. Everything is backed up in a 15TB disk array daily, so the redundancy is handled anyway.

[cteselle]

Looks like you have some nice hardware for your PVR!

Have a look at:

http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/

[The Godfather]

Originally posted by Scifience:
I'd like to use MythTV (no evil Microsoft), but I'm not sure if the hassle of setting it up is worth it.

Why no evil Microsoft? Don't you want those evil PC games?

[Scifience]

Originally posted by The Godfather:
Why no evil Microsoft? Don't you want those evil PC games?

I have a different machine for that (it does run XP - has even better specs than the one up there).

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by Scifience:
Well, I finally did it. $4000 later, I assembled all of the components needed to build a very nice home theater / DVR system.

Athlon 64 3200+
1GB PC3200 RAM
500 GB Hard Disk Space (2x250GB in RAID 0)
WinTV 350
nVidia GeForce 6800 GT
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
5.1 THX Certified Surround Sound System

How does that come to $4000? The system looks to be $1200 or so, with the video card being horribly overkill for a PVR, but your choice.

[Scifience]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
How does that come to $4000? The system looks to be $1200 or so, with the video card being horribly overkill for a PVR, but your choice.

Look at the date...those parts were more expensive then, plus about $1250 for speakers.

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by Scifience:
Look at the date...those parts were more expensive then, plus about $1250 for speakers.

$1500 for the parts then?

[awaspaas]

MythTV was easy to set up, except I still don't get how to make mplayer use the PVR-350's video out (I didn't get a fancy schmancy Nvidia for video out - it's just to the tv!!)

[Scifience]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
$1500 for the parts then?

Yeah, that is about accurate, minus $550 for the graphics card, $1250 for the speakers, shipping, cables, etc.